Teenagers for Foodstuff Justice Receives $300,000 USDA Grant For Ambitious Hydroponic Farm Growth on the Rockaway Peninsula

Funding will carry significant-potential, indoor hydroponic farming tied to STEM schooling and advocacy coaching to 4 neighborhood educational institutions, and make wholesome, reasonably priced food stuff accessibility in the course of the Rockaways.

Published: Oct. 19, 2021 at 3:22 PM EDT|Updated: 8 minutes ago

NEW YORK, Oct. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Nonprofit Teenagers for Food items Justice (TFFJ) has been awarded a $300,000, a few-yr grant by the U.S. Section of Agriculture (USDA) to develop its university-based, indoor hydroponic farming program throughout the Rockaway Peninsula. In partnership with the Queens South Borough Place of work of the New York Town Office of Training (NYCDOE), TFFJ will leverage this funding to build its farms and programming at 4 Rockaway Peninsula school campuses and boost entry to nutritious and cost-effective food items and diet regime-similar well being outcomes in this really isolated, beneath-resourced spot of Queens. According to the Rockaway Organization Alliance, there are only 31 delis, bodegas, and supermarkets between 1,809 retail organizations, limiting the access to nutritious produce.

The USDA lately announced extra than $6 million in grants and cooperative agreements as a result of its Office of Urban Agriculture and Modern Generation (UAIP). USDA’s Organic Assets Conservation Support (NRCS) Chief Terry Cosby stated,”These tasks nourish communities with contemporary, healthy food stuff educate generations the joy and fulfillment of farming and partnerships and deliver environmental positive aspects by lowering food waste and making compost that can be made use of in a wide range of farming operations.”

“We are honored and thrilled to be one of only 11 Implementation Projects selected by the USDA, nationwide. This funding will make it possible for us to significantly increase our attempts to get rid of meals insecurity and its immediate damaging impacts on well being, by placing our upcoming technology of leaders on the frontlines of this work,” explained Katherine Soll, TFFJ CEO and Co-Founder.

“The Queens South NYCDOE Borough Place of work embraces a holistic technique in supporting colleges, which is why we’ve advocated so strongly to grow TFFJ’s method in our neighborhood. We consider this 4-website farm hub will enable establish a long lasting foundation for increased meals security and equity in the borough, and specifically on the Much Rockaway Peninsula, for decades to come,” mentioned Narine Bharat, the office’s Director of Operations.

By the close of the grant period of time in 2024, by way of partnerships with the DOE’s Queens South Borough Workplace, Community Faculty District 27, the Considerably Rockaway Substantial University Educational Advanced, Scholars’ Academy, Dr. Richard R. Environmentally friendly Faculty, The College by the Sea, and the nonprofits Rockaway Youth Activity Pressure and GrowNYC, TFFJ assignments sizeable positive outcomes in the Rockaway Peninsula local community, together with:

• Participating extra than 4,000 learners in fingers-on STEM training and leadership growth.
• Connecting college students to vocation paths and prospects in school-centered hydroponic farms, city agriculture and advocacy.
• Making 20,000 lbs . of contemporary create for distribution by way of school lunches and in just the neighborhood.
• Education about 20 academics to use hydroponic farms as arms-on labs for STEM and agriculture experiments.

To understand far more about TFFJ’s, click on listed here.

About Teens for Food items Justice
TFFJ operates significant-capacity hydroponic farms on five school campuses throughout 4 New York Town boroughs. TFFJ college students use genuine-globe 21st-century science and technologies to grow up to 10,000 lbs (for each college) of hydroponic develop on a yearly basis. As a result of the system, TFFJ’s farmers build a significant option to meals insecurity, remodel their marriage with the foodstuff they consume and build reducing-edge STEM skills necessary in a new eco-friendly sector economic system. The TFFJ program will launch in Denver and Miami community Schools by 2022.

Media Speak to: Giselle Chollett, Giselle@adinnyc.com, 917.386.7116

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